Last Mile Home
by secedo
Summary: Maya and Lucas have been friends for years. The triangle was forgotten long ago and the topic of feelings was left back in middle school by everybody. At least, that's what everyone thought.
1. Chapter 1

It was a Tuesday afternoon and the group was meeting at Topanga's to study for their respective classes. As juniors in high school they'd all come to find themselves in different places at different times and rarely ever together all at once. If they were anything like Maya and Farkle, on two completely different ends of the academic spectrum, they found themselves having not one class together. The only things they all had in common were their lunch hour and their once a week meeting at the bakery. Don't get them wrong, in smaller groups and pairs they spent quite a bit of time with one another. Tuesday afternoon was just the one day a week that all five had an empty after school schedule and could come together all at once.

On this particular Tuesday afternoon they found themselves in different areas of the bakery, all studying for different things and working on different projects. This was how it usually went. They would take periodic breaks to enjoy one another, but for the most part it was just the togetherness that kept them bonded. Sometimes if two or three of them had the same class together, like Maya and Lucas on this particular afternoon, they would partner or group up to do their studying together while the others did whatever it was they had to do.

Today Lucas had his laptop out in front of him while Maya poured over the notes the two had taken. She wasn't the worst student anymore and Lucas had only complained sarcastically when the two had been paired up to work on their English presentation. For the most part students would split up their work during school hours and not bother getting together one on one, but given the fact that they would be spending the time together anyway they'd opted to just do it all together.

For the time being they worked in relative silence, both just looking for their own little bullet points to match the other with once they felt like they knew what was going on. Every so often Maya would pause to take a sip of Lucas' raspberry smoothie, having pushed her own finished one across the table long ago. He never protested even though he watched her do it every time. It was more or less their thing. He thought maybe Maya did it with everybody, finished their food nonchalantly, but if he paid attention he'd see it was just him. Maybe subconsciously he always knew to leave half of whatever he got for her in the first place. After years of friendship it had just become their unspoken ritual.

Lucas finally shut his laptop only to find that Maya was scrolling through her phone without any regard for their notes and he reached to wave his hand over her face to get her attention. "Earth to Maya. Did you forget we were doing something?"

Maya looked up with a furrowed brow and set her phone down beside her notebook on the table. "I didn't forget. I just finished a few minutes ago and didn't want to pull you away from your..." she gestured at his laptop, "whatever you were doing." The truth was she was pretty sure she'd seen him tab over to his facebook multiple times. Not that she was going to call him on it or anything.

"Yeah well, what can I say? This just isn't interesting. I can only look up so much about the symbolism in Moby Dick before I lose it," he admitted, earning a genuine laugh from Maya.

Unlike when they were in middle school and everything was so awkward and forced, everything seemed more genuine between them. The entire group in general was less awkward and more in sync, but honestly nobody evolved in their friendship more than Lucas and Maya had. Sure, Riley and Maya were still inseparable but they were more or less the same as they always had been. Lucas and Maya on the other hand had become the best of friends. The romantic undertones had shifted into actual admiration, the teasing had shifted into, well, still teasing, but with a genuine sincerity that couldn't be mistaken for anything else.

Maya settled for knocking Lucas' shoulder with her own playfully before flipping back a page in her notebook to get back to work, sharing thoughts back and forth until it was time for the five of them to shove their assignments away and get to the actual hanging out part of their afternoon- the part everyone actually came for.

* * *

The bakery had long since been left behind and dinner in the Matthews' kitchen had been cleaned up, put away, and forgotten about. Maya and Riley found themselves in the familiar bay window babbling on about irrelevant details about their days. At least, they were mostly irrelevant until Riley brought up a topic that Maya hadn't heard her touch since the summer before their freshman year.

"You and Lucas looked pretty cozy today," she mentioned out of nowhere, causing Maya to choke on absolutely nothing, which Riley just rolled her eyes at.

"What do you mean cozy?" Maya accentuated the last word in a more mocking tone than Riley had said it in the first place. She found the observation ridiculous. Of course she and Lucas were cozy. They were the best of friends. They spent more time together than she spent with anyone else in the group aside from Riley. They had a lot in common and they grounded one another. They could bounce ideas off of one another without having to explain themselves. Cozy was an understatement if Maya was being honest, but no matter what word she would use to describe them it still didn't merit any conversation. It wasn't anything more than it was.

Riley simply bounced back and forth and put on a face as if she didn't mean anything important by her statement. As if it was just another random anecdote about her day. "I don't mean anything. I'm not insinuating anything. I'm just saying. I looked over while we were studying and I noticed," she offered with a shrug, as if it just wasn't anything. Maya was absolutely dumbfounded.

"You can't just act like you didn't mean anything by it. You can't just pretend you said it like, 'oh I was a quarter short in my lunch money so Farkle lent it to me and also you and Lucas seem awfully chummy.'" Maya deadpanned, completely confused by the entire thing.

Riley simply shrugged and went on to talk about how she was pretty sure she aced her history midterm. Maya really wasn't listening enough to weigh in.

She was not cozy with Lucas. No. If she was it wasn't like it was anything anyone would notice. She was cozy with Lucas the same way she was cozy with Riley right here and now. This whole global phenomenon of boys and girls not being able to be friends was infuriating. Maya and Lucas had been close for years now and if they happened to brush hands and linger longer than most people, and if they happened to exchange playlists, and if they happened to understand the gibberish that the other was spouting even if it didn't make sense to anyone else, well that was just what it was. Wasn't it? All it meant was that they were comfortable, that they had the same taste in music, that they had stuff in common. Didn't it?

Of course it did. Maya hadn't entertained the thought of being cozy with Lucas in years. As far as she knew he hadn't either. Then again, as far as she knew Riley was also on that page, but apparently she was wrong about that. Maybe she was wrong about other things.


	2. Chapter 2

Maya found herself at home and in bed late that night, having said goodnight to the Matthews family, to her mother and Shawn, to Ginger who was even sleeping soundly in her cage, but she was having trouble sleeping herself. She kept replaying what Riley had said over and over in her head. There was no reason for Riley to have said that. The exchange she shared with Lucas while doing their schoolwork wasn't that charged. There was nothing so different between it and their usual exchanges that called for any sort of comments.

And honestly, even if there was, was it necessary for Riley to point it out and then refuse to elaborate? Obviously Maya didn't understand. She wasn't Naive or anything. She knew that she and Lucas had always had chemistry. It was just that there was nothing new in their friendship that hadn't been there a year ago, two years ago, five years ago even. Riley was the naive one if anybody, so why did Riley see something that Maya didn't?

She wasn't even sure why this was keeping her up. It was her relationship that had been called into question. Riley had nothing to do with it and if she wasn't initiating any changes and Lucas wasn't initiating any changes, then what did it matter to Maya what Riley thought?

She rolled over onto her back and stared at her ceiling, contemplating whether or not she should paint it to resemble the night sky. She quickly tossed the idea out as it was clearly just something that she was trying to distract herself with. Distract herself from what though? There was nothing going on and Riley's comment didn't mean anything. She was sure of that. Or at least that's what she was going to continue to tell herself.

* * *

She'd made it through the next day of school without thinking once about the comment or the meaning behind it. At least, she'd tell herself she hadn't thought of it once. She did have a momentary lapse when she saw Riley at her locker and contemplated walking up to her and forcing it out of her. All she wanted to know was what she'd meant. That was it. But she'd pushed it out of her mind almost as quickly as it had come, and she'd convinced herself that it hadn't even happened. She didn't care. Yeah, that was it. She just didn't care anymore.

Except that school was over and now Maya was meeting with Lucas again. Alone. They had two more days to finish their English project and they hadn't even put a dent in it. Maya just had to come up with the brilliant idea to make a papier-mache white whale and fill it with slips of paper with the different examples of symbolism written on them. That was a project that would take effort. They couldn't be like everyone else and paste printed facts on a tri-fold poster board.

"Ready to go," Lucas asked as he approached her locker. They'd decided to go to her apartment straight from school since nobody would be there to get in their way and if they made a mess with the papier-mache Lucas' mom wouldn't have a stroke.

Maya simply nodded and waved goodbye to Riley before following Lucas out of the school and to the parking lot to find Bessie, Lucas' red pickup that Maya had named herself. The ride was mostly silent, but that wasn't weird really since Lucas had his music up. Maya wasn't even sure why she was paying attention to whether or not things were weird or normal, loud or quiet. Before she really had time to think about it they were parked in front of her apartment, or as close as they could find a spot in a city like this.

The two made their way up to Maya's apartment and Lucas stood back as Maya hip checked the door to get it to unstick as it opened. He'd seen her do it a thousand times. He'd even offered to take a look at it and see if he could fix it. Maya and her mom seemed to enjoy it, as the feature gave them that little bit of added security in their not so nice apartment across from the sketchy Bunny Mart. Shawn had suggested they get a bigger place now that he was in the picture, but Katy didn't want to move Gammy Hart and confuse her anymore than she had to. As it turned out today, Gammy Hart was at Flamingo Bingo until it closed that evening.

"Okay, first things first, I'm raiding your fridge so if there are any leftovers that anybody is counting on tell me now so that I don't eat them," Lucas announced as he threw his bag onto the recliner that he knew was always vacant except for coats and bags and unwanted guests. He was acting just like the usual Lucas, Maya noticed, because everything as as usual. She could not figure out why this was so conflicting to her.

She was able to push it out of her head and goof around with him as they worked. She crafted the body of the whale while she made fun of him as he went through three batches of the paste because he kept insisting that it was too runny and needed more flour, which only served to make it much too thick as it sat. When they finally got to the actual paper strip portion they stuck more to one another than they did the whale. It was as if everything was exactly as it had been days prior. Hours later the pair was laughing so hard that they didn't even notice Shawn coming home.

"Are you two having fun in what was once my very clean kitchen," he asked mockingly, causing Maya to jump before turning to see him leaned against the doorway watching them. There was a clear smile on his face so she knew he wasn't actually angry about the mess.

"I am so sorry, Sir, I'll clean it up," Lucas promised, standing up straighter and immediately reaching to pick up some of their mess, which caused Maya to laugh and shake her head at the poor, poor boy who stilled had such southern hospitality.

"Yeah you'd better."

It was obvious to Maya that Shawn's new found firm tone was only being used to have some fun in scaring Lucas. It almost pained her to see the fear in his eyes. Pained her in a good way though. A way that she planned to take advantage of.

"You should also apologize for that comment you made about what we could do without any adult supervision," she said meekly and batted her eyelashes at Lucas who immediately looked between her and Shawn, stuttering nervously.

"I didn't...I would never..." he insisted before finally stomping a foot comically and looking Shawn in the eye. "I have never and would never touch Maya, Sir."

The comment should have mad Maya breaking down in laughter, but instead something else happened. Instead, Maya figured out why Riley's comment had her obsessing so much. In that moment, when Lucas was promising her pseudo father that he would never touch her, Maya realized how much she actually maybe did want to be cozy with Lucas Friar. Not that she could ever tell him.

So instead Maya swallowed her feelings and gave Lucas a hard pat on the back. "Nobody cares, Huckleberry," she assured him with a smile, Shawn chuckling finally himself to drive home that it had been a joke. "We should pack this up though. All we have to do is let it dry and stuff the papers in. I can do all of that tomorrow after work. There's no reason to get together to finish it up."

Lucas was clearly still a little nervous, albeit relaxed as much as Maya assumed he could after that sort of scare. He offered her a small smile after Shawn moved past them to grab a beer from the fridge and then went back into the living room to leave them to their crafting.

"I'm sorry if I did something." He was looking at her with a foreign expression. Maya's mood had very obviously soured only Lucas didn't have any clue why. She didn't plan on explaining it to him though. Lucas had every opportunity in the world to express feelings for Maya and since he never did then Maya could only take that to assume that feelings didn't exist like that. Besides, he'd said he never planned on touching her. It wasn't a surprise. Lucas could have anyone he wanted. He'd had plenty of girlfriends and he would continue to have plenty of girlfriends.

Maya didn't even know why she cared so suddenly. It wasn't like she'd ever thought about being anything more than what they were before that very moment.

"You didn't do anything, I'm just suddenly feeling really nauseous. I think the small of the paste is getting to me," she lied.

The two cleaned up their mess in near record time, Lucas all the while giving Maya weird looks as she avoided being anywhere near him. She felt bad leaving him this obviously confused, but she was in a funk that she couldn't seem to get herself out of. She was pretty sure that she was going to either spontaneously combust or something. It wasn't every day you realized you had feelings for your best friend.

After assuring him half a dozen more times that she was just feeling a little under the weather suddenly they said their goodbyes and she found herself shutting the door behind Lucas, ignoring the questioning glances that Shawn was sending her way in favor of just going to her room to be alone for the rest of the night.

There were just too many questions that Maya had for herself to be able to answer those of anyone else. She had no idea what she was going to do.

* * *

author's note: _I'm sorry this chapter was so angsty and_ _repetitive. This story won't all be this way. We're just looking at a slow buildup and a healthy dose of pining with some self doubt thrown in for good measure along the way._


End file.
